Railways to run 3 special festival trains for Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, October 10

To clear extra rush of passengers during the festival season and to cater to demands of pilgrims intending to visit holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi, the railways would run three festival special trains for limited duration. These three special trains would provide connectivity of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra with New Delhi, Varanasi and Anand Vihar Terminus (New Delhi).

The 01633/01634 New Delhi-Shri Mata Viahno Devi Katra-New Delhi tri-weekly special trains would run from New Delhi on every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (October 10 to November 21) at 11.30 pm and reach its destination next day at 12 noon.

In return journey, the train would operate from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra on every Thursday, Saturday and Monday (October 11 to November 22) at 9.30 pm and arrive New Delhi at 10.30 am.

The train would have commercial halts at Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala Cantt, Ludhiana, Jalandhar Cantt, Pathankot Cantt, Jammu Tawi and Udhampur.

The 01654/01653 Varanasi-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra-Varanasi weekly special train would depart from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra on every Sunday (October 10 to November 21) at 11.20 pm and reach Varanasi next day at 11.45 pm.

In return direction, the train would leave Varanasi on every Tuesday (October 12 to November 23) at 6.10 am and reach Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra next day at 10.55 am.

The train would have stoppages at Udhampur, Jammu Tawi, Pathankot Cantt, Jalandhar Cantt, Ludhiana, Ambala Cantt, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Lucknow and Sultanpur.

The 01671/01672 Ananad Vihar Terminus (AVT)-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra-AVT bi-weekly special train would leave AVT on every Monday and Thursday (October 11 to November 18) at 11 pm and arrive at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra the next day at 1.30 pm.

On return journey, the train would depart from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra on every Tuesday and Friday (October 12 to November 19) at 9.10 pm to reach the AVT the next day at 10.45 am.

Enroute, the train would halt at Udhampur, Jammu Tawi, Pathankot Cantt, Jalandhar Cantt, Ludhiana, Ambala Cantt, Yamuna Nagar Jagadhri, Saharnpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut City and Ghaziabad.